In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

In East Timor, the justice sector’s slow development, a largely remote and poor population, and multiple questions surrounding the new laws born from independence in 2002 have severely hampered everyday Timorese citizens from resolving their disputes. Left unresolved, disputes regarding land, divorce, robbery, minor injuries, and gender- based violence can spark violent conflict in communities, leading to more instability for this young country.

In early 2003, the National Mobile Legal Aid Network was launched. The program has aimed to enable Timorese legal aid NGOs to assist disadvantaged citizens in resolving their disputes through either court litigation and alternative dispute resolution in cooperation with local authorities.

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On August 17, a front page feature article on trafficking in persons (TIP) was placed in a major national daily, the Philippine Star. The story, “Internet Pornography:  The Untouchable Crime,” written by Carmela Fonbuena of Newsbreak, was written to call on the general public to seriously look into this terrible transnational crime that acutely affects the Philippines.

In 2002, The Asia Foundation facilitated a survey of Filipinos’ perceptions on trafficking in persons. In it, they cited poverty and lack of gainful employment as the main motivators to migrate abroad.  That survey compelled lawmakers to advocate for the passage of the Anti-Trafficking Law in May 2003. 

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“This is what democracy looks like!” The cry of street demonstrators has been brought to life in the presidential primary just concluded in South Korea.

South Korea’s conservative party, the Grand National Party (GNP — or Hannara-dang, in Korean), has selected the former Mayor of Seoul, Lee Myung-bak, to be its standard bearer in the December 19th presidential election. Lee edged out Park Geun-hye, the daughter of strongman Park Chung Hee who marched Korea toward economic prosperity in the 1960s and 70s.

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On August 19, eleven months after Thailand’s democratically elected government was overthrown in a military-backed coup d’état, the Thai people went to the polls for the national referendum ostensibly to accept or reject a new constitution drafted by the military’s Council for National Security(CNS). For most people, the details of the draft constitution hardly mattered. Rather, the process was seen as a popularity contest between the military’s supporters and supporters of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

On election day about 26 million voters (57%) went to the polls, and, in an apparent win for the CNS, 56% voted in favor of the new constitution. But for a variety of reasons, few see this victory as unequivocal, and it is unlikely to resolve the continuing political instability in Thailand.

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Once again, Indonesian voters defied commentators by enthusiastically participating in Jakarta’s first-ever direct election for governor. While there are no official results yet, voter turnout amongst the 5.8 million voters appears to be much higher than some were anticipating in the run-up to the election (the Indonesia Survey Institute predicted only a 35% turnout in a recent poll).

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Thailand’s first-ever national referendum on a draft constitution, to be held on August 19, 2007, will be another historic day for women in Thai politics. Whether or not the charter will be accepted in the referendum, the gender equality movement in Thailand has already taken another notable step.

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Recently, on a visit to the town of Cimahi in Western Java, Indonesia, The Asia Foundation’s economic experts met Pak Itoj Tochija, Cimahi’s Mayor. He was eager to show us their One Stop Shop (OSS): an initiative that facilitates the growth of small and medium businesses by vastly decreasing the time and cost of obtaining licenses and permits. The “shop” now has behind one door several offices of local bureaucracy that hold decision-making authority in the opening and operation of a business.

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